47 senators call for ending imaginary Second Amendment violation

Forty-seven U.S. Senators (8 Democrats, 39 Republicans), none of whom has apparently ever gone hunting with Dick Cheney, signed a letter to Secretary of the Interior Dick Kempthorne last month calling for an end to an imaginary prohibition against transporting and carrying guns on federal lands under control of the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The letter (pdf, 4 pages) avers that the applicable regulations “prohibit[] individuals from possessing a firearm on lands managed by those agencies — even citizens with valid concealed weapons permits.” That, the senators say, is all inconsistent ‘n’ shit with regulations governing Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands, which allow transportation and possession of guns in accordance with the law of the states where the lands are located. The senators want the same rule applied to NPS- and FWS-controlled lands to “respect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners, while providing a consistent application of state weapons laws across all land ownership boundaries.”

My, oh my, where to begin! First, the senators make no effort at all to explain why “[a] well regulated militia [is] necessary to the security of a free [national park and/or wildlife preserve].”

Second, if you listen closely enough, you can almost hear the “law-abiding gun owners” argument eating its own tail. After all, if you carry or transport a firearm on federal lands in violation of the applicable regulation, you’ve ceased to be a law-abiding gun owner.

Third, the senators are, to put it charitably, overstating their case. The applicable regulations, both of which date back to the early years of the Reagan administration, are so riddled with exceptions to the general rule as to make the term “prohibition” a monumental stretch. See36 C.F.R. § 2.4 (NPS); 50 C.F.R. § 27.42 (FWS).

But hey, who the hell am I? Nobody, that’s who. Just another random retard blogger.

By contrast, check out the All-Star signatories to that letter. We’ve got the irredeemably corrupt Ted Stevens, whore aficionado and diaper fetishist David Vitter, self-loathing homosexual and confessed bathroom cruiser Larry Craig, creationist loon and all-around wingnut James Inhofe, Trent “We should have elected Strom Thurmond as president in 1948” Lott, Wayne “One of the five worst senators in America” Allard, presidential candidate John “Walnuts!” McCain — the list goes on and on. How could all those superstars possibly be wrong?